Rodolfo Martín Villa facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rodolfo Martín Villa
Martín Villa in 1980
First Deputy Prime Minister of Spain
In office 1 December 1981 – 28 July 1982
Prime Minister	Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo
Preceded by	Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
Succeeded by	Alfonso Guerra
Minister of Interior
In office 5 July 1976 – 6 April 1979
Prime Minister	Adolfo Suárez
Preceded by	Manuel Fraga Iribarne
Succeeded by	Antonio Ibáñez Freire
Minister for Trade Union Relations
In office 12 December 1975 – 5 July 1976
Prime Minister	Carlos Arias Navarro
Personal details
Born	(1934-10-03) 3 October 1934 (age 90) Santa María del Páramo, Second Spanish Republic
Nationality	Spanish
Political party	Union of the Democratic Centre (until 1983) People's Party
Alma mater	Technical University of Madrid

Rodolfo Martín Villa (born 3 October 1934) is a Spanish engineer and politician. He held important jobs in the Spanish government during a time when Spain was changing from a dictatorship to a democracy. He was a minister, which is like a high-ranking government official, and even a deputy prime minister. He was involved in a legal case in Argentina about events that happened in 1976, but he was not found guilty in September 2022.

Early Life and Education

Rodolfo Martín Villa was born in Santa María del Páramo, a town in León, on 3 October 1934. He studied engineering at the Technical University of Madrid and earned a university degree.

Political Career

Martín Villa is an industrial engineer and also worked as a tax inspector. In February 1962, he became the head of the Sindicato Español Universitario, which was a university student organization. He held this position until December 1964.

Martín Villa was a member of a political party called the Union of the Democratic Centre. Before becoming a minister, he was the civil governor of Barcelona. In 1975, he was appointed as the Minister for Trade Union Relations, a role he held until 1976.

Minister of Interior

On 5 July 1976, he became the Minister of Interior in the first government led by Adolfo Suárez. This was a very important job, as he was in charge of internal security, local government, and civil rights for the country.

In the 1977 general election, which was the first democratic election in Spain since 1936, Martín Villa won a seat representing León. After the election, he continued as Minister of Interior. He tried to make some changes in the police force, but it was difficult. His time as Minister of Interior ended on 6 April 1979.

Later Government Roles

In September 1980, he was appointed as the minister for regions in the Suárez government. Later, from 1 December 1981 to 28 July 1982, he served as the First Deputy Prime Minister.

He continued to hold his seat in the Spanish Parliament in the 1979 and 1982 elections. He resigned from Parliament in February 1983. However, he returned to the Parliament in the 1989 election as a member of the People's Party, representing Madrid. He kept his seat in the next two elections before resigning again in February 1997.

Other Important Roles

Besides his political career, Rodolfo Martín Villa also held several important positions in businesses and organizations.

• He was a board member of Caja de Madrid, which was a large savings and loans institution.
• On 10 February 1997, he became the chairman of the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales, a state-owned industrial holding company.
• From February 1997 to May 2002, he was the chairman of Endesa, a major electricity company. After that, he became the honorary chairman of the company.
• In 2006, he was appointed chairman of Sogecable, a Spanish company that provides pay-TV services. His term ended in October 2010.
• He was also a member of the advisory committee for a think tank called FRIDE.

Legal Case

In April 2013, some human rights lawyers in Madrid announced that Rodolfo Martín Villa should be investigated. This was related to events that happened during a labor strike in Vitoria in March 1976.

In September 2022, an Argentine court made a decision regarding the accusations against Martín Villa. The court decided by a vote of 2 to 1 that the charges against him should be dropped, meaning he was not found guilty.

See also

In Spanish: Rodolfo Martín Villa para niños